Witch Trial on the River Leitha
This is the fifth story in a five piece series with losely connected plots I call "Die Märchen von einem österreichischen Mädchen" (The Tales of an Austrian Maiden) and it is a second venture into the past of the Viennese Ghost. All said stories will be regarding the misadventures of Elizabeth's Dietrichsditter, The Viennese Ghost. The other parts of the series can be found at the bottom of the page. Witch Trial on the River Leitha The townsfolk gathered on the bank of the river Leitha; they’ve gathered around to see the trial of one Elizabeth Dietrichsditter. Some of them accused Elizabeth of witchcraft and heresy for failing to attend church regularly. The young woman was just as pious as they come, however, she preferred the company of her lord alone. That did not sit well with some of the townsfolk, nor did it sit well with the local priest who had heard rumors of her involvement in the destruction of her hometown, Gelbfort. Adamant in her innocence, she had protested the accusations by proclaiming she will undertake examinations which would disprove all accusations against her. Hence, she the local clergy and townsfolk gathered at the bank of the river Leitha. Elizabeth was about to undertake the trial by swimming, wherein if she were a witch the water would reject her and suspend her body atop its surface. “Remove your undergarments; child, for you, might be hiding some hexes in them to help you submerge.“ Ordered father Hermann. Seemingly without a care in the world, Elizabeth locked her eyes with those of the priest and retorted in a dry and aloof tone, “Father, have your men inspect me for any special marks before they throw me into the river.“ The onlooking crowd roared in excitement at the prospect of the young woman bearing herself before them. “Only a woman in league with the devil would announce such an immodest intention, to stand naked before her whole town!” the priest smirked, assured of his supposed victory. The crowd fell silent. As she began undressing, Elizabeth glanced once more into the eyes of the priest before noting, “We are all but naked before the eyes of our lord. Garments mean very little when the time of judgment comes. Only people who‘ve fallen to carnal sin would see this as a morally wrong action, I am merely stating my innocence before all those who are present.“ The crowd began cheering again, almost as if to signify that most of the townsfolk believed in Elizabeth’s innocence. Once she was fully undressed, the cheering had turned into wild shrieks and whistles from men and embraced giggles from the women. Elizabeth, in turn, stood there, filled with pride and conviction; Her face displayed no emotion whatsoever. Her eyes remained half-closed in an aloof expression. She seemed almost lost and out of place. “Silence!” the priest ordered before having his men inspect the young woman’s body. They, in turn, looked and probed at her, while she remained motion and emotionless much to the chagrin of the priest. Father Hermann noticed a small mark on Elizabeth’s shoulder, almost hidden beneath her long light brown hair. He ordered her to move her hair aside and expose the backside of her shoulder. She complied silently. “Aha! What is this mark, child?“ the priest questioned. Elizabeth turned to face the priest, once more locking eyes with him, “The scar from a childhood accident. A faulty shelf collapse on top of me with its edge cutting deep into my flesh.“ “Can you present anyone who can confirm the story, child?” father Hermann pressed. Her gaze fixed and her body language unchanging, Elizabeth responded coldly, “Unfortunately not. All of my relatives are dead, Father.“ “Well then, perhaps you are a witch after all.” The priest declared to the onlooking crowd who in turn jeered at the prospect. Elizabeth kept on staring at the clergyman, her gaze firmly fixated on him, almost digging into his skull; “No.” she retorted calmly. Her response sent shivers down father Hermann’s spine, she made him feel uncomfortable and he couldn’t pinpoint why. “Something is wrong with this one…” he mumbled softly to himself. Elizabeth smiled at him, an inhumanly wide grin, for just a single moment before reverting to her stone-cold expression. She whispered gently to the priest, “I’ve heard that father!“ her eyes widening with amusement. The priest visibly shuttered at the girl‘s remark before swiftly ordering his men to tie her to a rope and throw her into the river. Elizabeth didn’t protest the procedure, in fact; She seemed to be happy to take a dip in the cold river below her. The crowd around her fell silent, not knowing what to expect. The majority of her neighbors were sure of her innocence, but some were doubtful. She was, after all, a recluse who didn’t attend church and behaved somewhat suspiciously unsocial at times. A rope was tied around Elizabeth’s waist, and one vicar shoved her down into the cold river below her. The whole time she didn’t utter a sound or change her expression. Not even when they had thrown her into the cold water. Her gaze remained somewhat aloof and her facial features remained relaxed. Almost inhumanly so. A loud splash followed her body hitting the Leitha‘s waters and then her body sank into the river. There was no gasping or struggling. There was nothing at all. As if no woman was being submerged into the water. The calm became eerily unbearable to the crowd that silently stood awaiting the reemergence of the young woman from within the water as the moments dragged on. The priest stood at the edge of the bank, awaiting Elizabeth’s body to float upwards on its own. He became increasingly irritated when her body refused to resurface. The crowd, in turn, became bitter when the procedure seemed to drag on too long. They began screaming and demanding Elizabeth be pulled out of the water. At first, the priest ignored their calls, but once the crowd became riotous enough, father Hermann finally relented and ordered his men to pull the young woman out of the Leitha. Once her body emerged from within the water the people roared in excitement, their daughter figure had proven her innocence. Elizabeth’s expression remained characteristically uninterested. The priest took one look at her dripping face and then forced himself to look away; Her dark eyes felt as if they were piercing his soul. He couldn’t handle her cold gaze any longer. Once Elizabeth was untied and allowed to dress, the priest looked at her and proclaimed. “I proclaim thee innocent of all charges of witchcraft and heresy, Elizabeth Dietrichsditter.” The crowds roared in approval delighted in the proclamation. Elizabeth approached the priest once fully dressed and stared him straight in the eyes before saying in a somewhat shaking tone, unlike herself, “Father, I‘ve her a divine premonition while I was submerged in the waters of the river.“ The priest felt as if the young girl was about to devour his soul, her words sounded muffled and slowed to him. Sweat began forming on his forehead. She wouldn’t move her gaze away from him. She stood in front of him, staring at him as if she was a statue. Unmoving, unchanging, unblinking. “Wh-what… are you saying, child?“ he questioned nervously. Elizabeth’s eyes gleamed, and she spoke once more, “The voice of an angel, warm and husky, spoke to me; it said that one of the people around me was a true devil worshipper.“ “What kind of nonsense you speak of, child?” “I swear, Father, I swear in the lord's name, the angel told me to sprinkle the water in my hairs across the feet of the men around me to find which one is the sorcerer.” “How dare you speak the lord's name in vein?!” “I do not! Father, believe me!“ During the exchange of the two, the crowd fell silent again, confused by the words of the young woman before them. Some took her words seriously, while others began thinking she had finally lost her mind. As the priest began threatening Elizabeth with damnation and condemnation, she walked around the edge of the bank spraying the waters from her hair all over the clergymen around her. Ignoring the priests warning she sprinkled water from on each and every one of them as they stood dumbfounded and speechless towards her. As she did, she reassured them that as long as they are on the right path, they shouldn’t feel anything. Once she reached the final vicar, she heard a loud thud behind her, followed by the blood-curdling screams of father Hermann. The crowd gasped loudly in unison as Elizabeth turned around to see the priest lying on his back clutching at his feet. His shoes were slowly melting off, with each passing moment the screams of pain grew in volume. The young woman ran up to the priest and stood over him. Blood began flowing, profusely, out of where his shoes used to be. The crowd was panicking along with the clergymen who had gathered around the agonized priest. Father Hermann was screaming ungodly profanities as his body twisted and turned in response to the blazing sensation that came from his lower appendages. As the clergymen were trying to make sense of what was happening, Elizabeth ran towards the priest‘s carriage and grabbed a large from within it running back towards the fallen priest. Some townsfolk ran up to the priest as well. The whole riverbank became chaotic like a scene out of a battle. Elizabeth kneeled over the priest and began praying in Latin; father Hermann noticed her prayer and his eyes widened in fear. She wasn’t supposed to know the tongue of the divine. She urged him to grab the cross and to join her in prayer. Whatever was this plague, that had stricken him, only the lord could salvage him. He took the cross into his arms and prayed along with the young woman. After a few moments of prayer, the priest cried out in pain again exclaiming, “my hands, my hands are on fire!“ Elizabeth let go of the cross immediately. The priest shrieked as he felt the skin of his palms envelop the golden crucifix. He writhed like a worm trying to shake away the scorching golden object away from his hands. Elizabeth stood over the clergymen and watched in horror as the priest rolled around the ground. He locked eyes with her and growled at her, “This bitch did this to me, burn this whore of Satan, kill her before her evil consumes us all!“ Elizabeth smiled again, a smile too wide to be human; her eyes widened with amusement as she stared, with an almost demonic stare at the restless body of the priest for a moment before proclaiming, “Those who lie in the name of the Lord shall suffocate on their own poisonous words!“ The priest stopped moving, his eyes widened with fear. His body began convulsing uncontrollably, prompting the fallen priest to emit some terrible sounds involuntarily. After a few moments, a sea of spiders crawled out of his mouth until there was nothing but a leathery husk remaining. Elizabeth turned to the riotous crowd and proclaimed, “As I‘ve said, the lord‘s angel instructed me to find the one who had formed a pact with the devil through the waters that have touched my body. Father Hermann stepped on the puddle which I left when I set foot on the ground. I‘ve found the one who had poisoned our community for so long! I‘ve found those who need to be put to death for the crimes of devil-worshipping and witchcraft!“ With her diabolical smile stretched from ear to ear, she pointed at the remaining clergymen and exclaimed, “Tear them apart as the inhabitants of Tartaros would!“ The townsfolk obediently complied. Thus, at the end of the witch trial, the cries of men being torn to pieces by a maddened mob the bank of the river Leitha while Elizabeth Dietrichsditter watched on. Her wicked smile never faded from her otherwise delicate face. 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